Development of iron-based catalysts for the coupling of carbon dioxide with epoxides

Abstract

Beside the environmental and energetic issues, carbon dioxide can be considered as a resource. Many chemical transformations based on CO2 as C-1 building block have been developed. The coupling reaction of epoxides with CO2 is one of the most attractive. An overview on the state of the art for metal-mediated process is provided. Particular enphasis is given to the iron-based systems, because it is an ideal candidate for the development of environmental and economic sustainable catalytic systems. It is the aim of this thesis to investigate the application of sulphur containing ligand based iron complexes, starting from the encouraging results reported by the research group of Capacchione in the case of the bis-thioether-tri-phenolate ligand based bimetallic Fe(III) complex.3 The synthesis and the complete characterization of five new thioether triphenolate ligands (L2-6), and of the corresponding bimetallic iron(III) complexes (2-6) is reported... [edited by author]